Heroes Closed Beta Patch Notes -- January 13, 2015

Earlier today, we brought Heroes of the Storm offline for a period of extended maintenance today in order to kick off our Closed Beta testing phase, and bring you a brand new patch! The Technical Alpha testing phase has officially come to an end, and we’ve got a new Battleground, a new Hero, our first iteration for Ranked Play, and much, much more in store for you with today’s update. Check out the complete patch notes below, and welcome to the Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta!

Please welcome Thrall, our latest addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster!

New Battleground

Sky Temple, a brand new 3-lane Battleground, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play in all game modes!

Temples at the center of each lane will activate after 90 seconds, and can be captured to fire devastating beams of energy at enemy Structures.

Beware! Once a Temple has been captured, its Guardians will rise and attempt to remove players by force. Defeat them to maintain control of an active Temple.

A Temple will cease firing shortly after all players have left its grounds, and can then be recaptured by either team. Be ready to fend off enemy players who seek to wrest control of the Temples for their own benefit.

One, two, or three Temples will activate at a time, and Temple activation will occur periodically throughout a game.

New Hero

Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, has entered the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his abilities, and then check out Thrall’s Hero Week blog for much more information on our new melee assassin.

Abilities

Chain Lightning (Q)

Blast 3 enemies with lightning.

Feral Spirit (W)

Releases a fiery wolf spirit to burn enemies and root Heroes.

Windfury (E)

Increases attack and movement speed.

Trait

Frostwolf Resilience

Casting Abilities on enemies grant charges that Heal you.

Heroic Abilities

Earthquake (R)

Persistently slows enemies in a massive area.

Sundering (R)

Sunder the earth in a line, damaging and stunning enemies in its path.

User Interface

Initial implementation for Hero League, the first Ranked Play mode in Heroes of the Storm, has been added to the game!

With Hero League, players will be able to queue up alone, or in a party of any size, for ranked, competitive matches against others of similar skill and party size.

In order to queue for Hero League, players must meet the following requirements:

Reach Level 30 or higher.

Own 10 or more Heroes (weekly free rotation Heroes do not count toward this requirement.)

Draft Mode

After finding a match, players will enter Draft Mode, in which teams will take turns picking the Heroes they’d like to use for the upcoming game.

Coin Toss

A coin toss will determine which team will pick first.

The team that wins the coin toss will be prompted to pick one Hero on the first turn, after which, teams will alternate picking two Heroes per turn until just one player remains on the team that lost the coin toss.

Hero Selection

Players may only choose from the pool of Heroes that they already own.

Each player will have 30 seconds to select a Hero during their turn. If no selection is made, a Hero will be locked in automatically.

Once locked in, a Hero can no longer be selected by any other player.

Points and Ranks

All Hero League players will be ranked individually, starting at Rank 50.

Win games to earn points that count toward promotion to the next rank, up to a maximum of Rank 1.

Losing games will result in a loss of points, and enough losses can cause demotion to the previous rank (though not below Rank 50.)

Players can view their own Rank and win/loss record at any time on the Hero League Play Screen.

Game Abandonment

A player that leaves an in-progress Hero League or Quick Match game will not be allowed to queue for Ranked Play until a new Quick Match game is completed.

Leaving a Hero League game during Draft Mode will result in a loss of 300 ranked points in addition to the above penalty, and all of that player’s party members at the time of Draft Mode abandonment will also receive these penalties.

Custom Games

The “Lobby Mode” dropdown found at the top-right corner of Custom Game lobbies has been enabled, and can now be used to switch between Hero Select formats:

Standard - Mirrors the same Hero Select format used in Quick Match games.

Draft Mode - Consists of two options:

Predetermined - Causes Hero Select to mirror the same Draft Mode format used for Hero League games.

First Come First Served (FCFS) - Utilizes a different Draft Mode format, which allows each team to freely decide the order in which its players will select their Heroes.

For a much more in-depth look at the features mentioned above, check out our recent Hero League and Draft Mode blog post. Furthermore, kindly keep in mind that today’s addition of Hero League and Draft Mode represent an early look at Ranked Play, and a number of improvements are planned for each of these features with future game updates. Feel free to share your thoughts on these features with us using the official feedback forums.

Now deals the 100% bonus damage on impact, rather than damaging over time.

Corpse Feeders (Talent)

No longer increases Roachling duration

Now decreases the damage that non-Heroic units deal to Roachlings by 30%

Devouring Maw (R)

Tyrant Maw (Talent)

Cooldown reduction from this talent is no longer dependent on Zagara killing a Hero inside of Devouring Maw. This is now a passive bonus. Anytime Zagara is credited with a Hero takedown, Devouring Maw’s cooldown is reduced by 25 seconds.